


Your kid. Yeah that one.

by DragoTheDemon



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Gen, Gordon has no braincells, M/M, Nonbinary Benrey, can you tell i write dialogue first?, i hope yall enjoy it tho, idk what im doing this is my first fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24169066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragoTheDemon/pseuds/DragoTheDemon
Summary: Gordon wanted to save himself the embarassment of having a stock photo baby in his locker and blurted something about having a kid to the Science TeamNow, after everything that happened, he didn't realise that a spur of the moment comment would come back around to change his entire life...-this is my first ever fic and idk if I'm ever going to expand on this so take what you will
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 15
Kudos: 155





	Your kid. Yeah that one.

A strange silence filled the room. Gordon groaned as he watched Benry rummage around his kitchen, searching for any more left-over food to steal with a toothy grin. Gordon had found himself at the mercy of the ‘human’ who had promptly decided to haunt the man's apartment after the Science Team _killed them_ (keyword: killed) and escaped Black Mesa. Well, maybe 'haunt' wasn't the right word seeing as they “got better” after dying in the debacle that was the ‘final fight’ and was corporeal in comparison to what Gordon assumed Benry should be like after watching way too many horror movies in his youth. Gordon was stuck with Benry. At least for the time being. 

Benry had their own place though, and from what Gordon had heard, would regularly invite Tommy and his friend Josh around to play games, but never with anyone else though. Unfortunately, it seemed like Benry chose Gordon’s place as their home as well as they were frequently found breaking into Gordon's apartment so much that the man might have considered a restraining order at this point. He knew that a flimsy piece of paper wasn’t going to stop them though if murdering them in an alien world didn’t do much. 

Gordon sat on his couch waiting as his reluctant companion finished drinking the pickle juice left in his fridge and then promptly climbing onto the counter and placing the jar on top of his cupboards, letting the fermenting aroma spread. Benry chuckled as they both knew that Gordon didn’t own anything to let him confidently climb up there to grab it back down. The man sighed. All of this had just become a standard affair in the small amount of time this has been happening…

“So…” Benry walked over and flopped down on the couch. They spread out, kicking Gordon to the edge while they took up all of the space.

“So?” Gordon replied, shifting into a slightly more comfortable position. Well, as comfortable as one could be when an unwanted guest’s feet were in your face.

“Your son.”

Gordon paused.

“My son?”

“Joshua wasn’t it?”

Gordon was… confused, to say the least. “Y-yeah… the one you said ‘looked a bit shit’.” He had forgotten that he had said that he had a son while in the complex. At the time, he didn’t think it was important. It was just a spur of the moment thing to save himself from potential embarrassment.

“Yeah.” Benry led there for a moment, staring at the man with unblinking eyes. Gordon broke the silence, anxiously curious as to what Benry’s point was going to be.

“...So... what?”

Benry’s mouth turned to a wide smirk.

“When are we gonna see him?”

“When are y-”

“I mean c’mon. Where could a rat man like you be keeping him? I didn’t see any rooms for kids here.”

“That’s b- I- uh-“ Benry watched as the man started to get flustered and through his racing mind, Gordon knew there were only two paths ahead of him. Either to take a hit to his pride and admit that his ‘son’ was just a stock photo in a frame that he forgot was there, or to continue this trainwreck of a conversation and dig himself deeper and deeper into a pit of lies. Before he could even gather his thoughts, the words came spilling out of his mouth.

“First of all, h-he's not here.” 

...Fuck. He’s continuing this...

He turned away from the guard in hopes that they couldn’t see the growing beads of sweat rolling down his face.

“Aww what? Why?” Benry flipped themself over and saddled up closer to him while Gordon used all of his effort not to squirm or look at the guard leaning against him.

Gordon’s voice squeaked and started to betray him “… B-because someone needed to take care of him… That’s all…” 

“Who?”

“W-why do you need to know?”

“I don't.”

“Then... Why are you asking?”

“Because.”

Gordon finally turned to look down at the guard, who was looking up at him with an unreadable expression, their head resting on their arms that were folded across Gordon’s curled up legs. The scientist’s hands got fidgety and tried to find something to grab onto. He ended up grabbing a thread that came loose from his hoodie’s seams and started to pull and twist it around his fingers. He tried to find the words to respond to Benry that didn’t end up in him shouting at his companion, but he found that under their relentless gaze, his mind came up blank. After a small moment, Gordon found the only other words that he could think of.

“‘Because’... What?”

“Because you're giving me vague answers about your little epic gamer fail”

“My _what?_ ”

“Your epic gamer fail.”

“Don't call him that.” Why was he defending his fake son’s honor?

“Then what should I call him?”

Oh god. He couldn’t remember the name he used. They had said it earlier. What was it? Why was he going along with this? How was he going to admit to this later without looking like a dumbass? No, he couldn’t. That would be stupid. How is he even going to continue like this? Oh god, it’s all gonna fall apart!

“… his name?” 

“Joshua?” THANK GOD THEY REMEMBERED!

“Y-yeah. That one” He gulped and tried to keep the name in his mind for later. His mouth was dry and he wrapped his arms around himself in hopes that it would help him calm down. It did not.

“But why are you hiding him from me?

“I’m not! He's not here and if he was, I would be concerned!”

“Why?”

Gordon felt the familiar burning annoyance build up inside of him. This whole conversation was just filling up a well of anxiety about his dumb lies that he was too proud to back down from and the annoyance of Benry prodding at him to see if he would falter. He needed to vent and this was surprisingly the most honest he was going to be in this conversation. He took an obligatory breath of air and started rambling.

“Well! _I’ve_ been stuck down in a fucking minotaur's labyrinth of a labrarory for like a month with _you_ as the endgame boss-

“Don’t quote myths with me. My epic gamer brain don’t understand”

“-and not only would the time I spent down there most certainly kill him seeing as I wasn’t here to take care of him, but the fact that _you’re_ here making my life hell away from all of that means I wouldn’t let you anywhere near him!”

Gordon’s hands stopped waving around after nearly hitting Benry in the face twice, but his slightly flushed face met the guard’s gaze as they propped their head up with their hands, feigning puppy-dog eyes, not unlike Sunkist’s when begging for just one more treat. Somehow this both mellowed the man and annoyed him even more.

“Aww why not? I’m great with kids!”

“You swear almost constantly.”

“Not fucking true.”

“You freak me the fuck out with that weird shapeshifting god thing you got there-”

“Maaan, I could turn into a horse and let little joshie ride around into weird places...”

“-which I certainly wouldn't want him to be traumatised by, AND I don’t think you not being able to die is going to do any favours when being concerned for his safety!”

Benry boops Gordon’s nose and smiles as he flinches away. “Well, I haven’t let _you_ die.”

“That’s because you haven’t been able to kill me yet…”

Benry cocks his head to the side and gazes at him wistfully for a moment.

“You’re too pretty to kill...”

Gordon’s face quickly becomes hot and bright red as his stomach twists in a strange way he doesn’t understand. His hands fly up between them as his brain tries to process what was happening, to which Benry quickly undercuts the moment with “Fucking gross voredom feetman” in the same monotone voice that keeped setting the scientist off in this conversation.

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

“The problem is you not kissing me.”

Gordon makes a sound comparable to what a keysmash sounds like.

“And why the fuck would i do that?!”

“Maan, wouldn’t you want little joshie to have some cool gay dads? That would be cool. You'd, like, up your coolness level by at least 6.”

“I- You- Why the fuck- dude.” This conversation was confusing Gordon in ways he didn’t want to dive into. “Why are you even here anyways?!”

“To annoy you.”

“Yeah. Great job.”

Benry perks up for a moment, smiling a little more genuinely than Gordon had seen before, “And to see joshua! I wanna see the little guy who was named after my best friend!”

“He was n- Ugh! You’re not going to see him!”

“C’moon!”

“You’re not! I swear to god!”

Benry positioned themself so that his head was lying in Gordo’s lap where they gazed up at the anxious and flustered man of their affections. They made a point of trying to appear as cute as possible for him. 

“Pretty please!”

“You know the more you beg the more time it’s going to take before you will get to see him…”

“Aw maan… at this point i swear you don’t even have a kid!” Benry sat up and pouted towards the man who feigned offence at the comment.

“I-... I _do._ Its just there is no way in hell I’m going to let a fucking maniac mess with my kid and potentially kill him. I want him to have- to have a normal fucking life. I don’t want any eldritch creatures messing up his head!”

“Now you’re just making excuses Feetman.”

“I’m not! I just-” He buried his face into his hands and breathed a screaming hum. He was done. “Can you just _leave?_ ”

“No.”

Gordon grabbed Benry by the shoulders and started to shove them off the couch. 

“Leave my house!”

“No!” Benry leaned back against him as Gordon finally got them to stand up and push them towards the door.

“Stop acting like a child!”

“Then tell me a good reason why I should leave.”

“I swear to god I will scream at you and I do _not_ want to wake up the neighbors so _please_ just leave!”

“Sounds like you’re acting like a child.” Gordon knows that they were looking back at him with that god-awful smirk but he was too concentrated on fighting against the extra weight Benry was pushing down on him.

“I am going to strangle you with my own bare hands…” He whined.

“Sexy.”

“It’s not!” Gordon shouted. He backed down as soon as he realised how loud he was. Benry sighed.

“Fine, fine. I'll leave.” They stood up, leaving Gordon to fall onto the floor in an awkward heap as he didn’t expect Benry to stop so suddenly. He re-adjusted his glasses to see the guard walking to the door.

“Fucking finally…” He mumbled as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.

“ _On the promise-_ ” Benry turned on their heels to face Gordon, “-that I would get to see Joshua before any of the others.” They smirked. Gordon was already too tired for this.

“Okay, okay! Just not _soon!_ I need to fucking sort out some shit for him to make sure he’s okay. And I guess baby-proof the apartment but that second part is not because of Joshua.” He pointed at Benry accusingly. He mentally fist-pumped when he remembered the name.

Benry turned again, opening the door to let themself out. 

“Sweet. I'll see you and your fail kid soon Feetman.”

“Stop calling me that!”

A quiet “Ha ha. Feetman.” could be heard down the hall as Benry left the door open, earning a grunt from Gordon as he walked over to close and lock it. This was a fine mess he left himself in. He buried his face in his hands and let them move up to glide over his hair until it reached his ponytail. He split it his hair apart and pulled on it to tighten up the hairstyle and then let his arms fall to his sides. He wracked his dumb, stupid brain on ways to try and figure out this situation. He couldn’t just come out and say he’s never had a kid. At least, not after that conversation… The others are all going to think the same thing as Benry, if not, Benry is definitely going to spread the word around and embarrass the hell out of him in the future.

As Gordon paced around, he couldn’t help but feel as if this situation was all too familiar. That was until it hit him. Of course! How could he forget?! He scavenged the apartment for an old scrap of paper that he kept and walked over to his landline, seeing as he still hasn’t gotten around to getting a new cell phone, and dialled the number he remembered scrawling in the middle of a laughing fit back in his college days. He listened carefully to the dial and started to shift his weight around nervously until he heard the all too memorable voice of an old friend.

Gordon kind of laughs before relaxing into the nostalgic feeling her voice brings.

“H-hey Cassidy. ... Hi, yes, it’s been a while hasn’t it?... No, no, I’m doing good but- … You heard about that? ... Yeah. No- I- ... yeah I know. It’s weird isn’t it? ... Yeah, yeah. I’m okay. ... Okay, look, you know I called for a reason, right? ... Yea- no, no! It’s not what you think! Just hear me out a sec… I’m going to need your help. ... I already promised some people that privilege first! … Yeah! Ha ha! … Okay, look. Y’know those weird long-term pranks us and Jamie used to pull? ... Yeah! Like that one! Fuck, I still don’t think they even figured out we were doing that, ha ha. … But, like, really. I need help. ... Yeaah… Don’t judge me okay... I kinda said to my friends and co-workers that I had a kid when I don't. ... Yeah, its fucking weird, right? ... Look I ended up trapping myself in a corner today! I _really_ don’t want to embarrass myself in front of them… It’s just this one specific one that is going to get my ass about it. ... It- it’s not like that! … I swear to god Cassidy you’re gayer than me! ... Oh God, don’t bring that up again, I thought I had forgotten it already! Ha ha! ... Seriously though, If you still have Jamie's number, I want to see if we could pull it off. ... Y-yeah I’m ready for it! I’ve actually thought about having one for a while. Well, Charlotte and I- … Y-yeah. … No... It didn’t work out. ... Yeah- no. … Okay. … Would Wednesday be good for you? ... 6pm. ... Okay. Yeah- no. … It was good to hear from you. ... Yeah. ... Say hi to them for me. ... Yeah, thanks. Bye.”

Gordon put the phone down and just… breathed… He was slowly realising what he had just done and took his glasses off to rub at his eyes.

Welp. He was actually going to do this… Fuck…

Gordon was screwed...

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about that one-sided dialogue at the end, I didn't want the chapter to be longer than it was already, but it seemed like a cool choice? Maybe...


End file.
